Mount assemblies for arc discharge lamps usually employ a discharge vessel mounted upon a frame. The frame is generally mounted by means of clips to the flare and extends longitudinally to the opposite end of a lamp envelope where it is held in place by either snubbers embracing the envelope wall or a ring, which engages a dimple, formed in the wall envelope. The flare itself comprises a tubular body that can carry the exhaust tubulation and seals the in-leads in a pinch seal. Previous assemblies have used bands and frame assemblies that were crimped onto a stem. Often, these assemblies were purchased parts that occasionally suffered damage in shipping. Further, the crimping and strapping operations necessary to mount the assembly to the stem have not been reasonably automatable. Such assemblies are expensive and require a great deal of manual operations to complete. The repetitious hand operations also had unacceptable ergonomic issues.
Some of these problems were solved with the provision of a substantially C-shaped clip formed from spring steel. The clip had a given height H and an inside diameter D. A pair of substantially oppositely located cutouts, each providing an extending flap, projected away from the clip.
Additionally, there was provided a mount assembly for a lamp that included a “U” shaped frame member extending the length of the mount assembly, from the flare to the opposite end of the lamp envelope. The frame had a first leg attached to one of the flaps and a second leg attached to the other of the flaps. The end of the frame, the “bight” of the U, attached to the opposite end of the lamp. This construction, while working well, required a special lamp envelope having multiple diameters. This construction is shown in pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/155,541, filed May 24, 2002 and assigned to the assignee of the present invention.